I awoke late, went downstairs, and ask the doorman where in the Monument Square area I could get a bagel and a cup of good coffee. She directed me to the charming City Cafe, basically your classic urban hipster-writer hangout except for one thing: No one there had an Apple laptop.
This was strange. At similar places in Santa Monica or Brooklyn, Macbooks are everywhere. But not here. I'd seen the same Mac absence in Cleveland last fall. That's when it hit me: Cities such as Baltimore and Cleveland are struggling because people there don't use Macs.
At this point, you're probably thinking: He's crazy! Macs don't make cities richer; it's just that creative types in wealthy communities like (and are willing to pay more for) Macs.
A favorite new(ish) theory among urban planners is that immigrants -- even illegal immigrants -- make for successful cities. Cities such as New Haven have set up support services for them. Other cities have set up immigrant officers to recruit them.